The Traitors contestants don't actually sleep at the castle - and where they do stay is far less glamorous

The Traitors season 2 kicked off last week with 22 contestants heading off to the Scottish Highlands, ready to take a (back) stab at winning £120,000. The BBC reality TV competition was a huge hit when it first landed on UK soil in 2022, and Claudia Winkleman has returned with a new bunch of Faithfuls and Traitors to see whether decency or deception prevails.

The first three episodes have been released, and the nation is hooked. The Traitors have already turned on each other, one Faithful spiralled at the roundtable and unwittingly made themselves look extremely guilty, and there was even a plot twist mum and son reveal. If you're counting down the hours until the next episode is released on Wednesday, you are not alone. 

While viewers wait on the edge of their seats to find out which contestant will be banished next, some people have been doing a little digging to find out how the show operates behind the scenes. And one of the most interesting things that The Traitors fans have uncovered is that the contestants don't actually stay at the grand and glamorous castle. At all. 

The show is set at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, a 19th-century castle nestled in 100 acres of Alness parkland. Throughout, we see the contestants pottering about in the regal dwelling, discussing their theories and plotting their next move. When the night bell chimes, the contestants exit the castle and are separately driven off in the dark of night. However, when the Traitors gather in the tower to discuss their victim shortlist, it usually cuts to the contestants lounging in their lavish quarters - leading many to believe that they stay in the castle, or at least in luxury accommodation on the grounds. 

But according to The Traitors US host Alan Cumming, the contestants actually stay in a nearby airport hotel. He told Daily Beast: "Spoiler alert: None of us stayed in the castle. None of us... [the contestants] all stayed in the airport hotel in the Inverness airport. How glamorous - you come to Scotland, and you stay in the Inverness airport hotel."

He continued: "I stayed in a little house in Inverness. But I had a room in the castle where I would get made up and dressed. It had a huge bed in it. So I did actually sleep quite often, but not overnight."

Social media users on X - formerly Twitter - were quick to share their thoughts, with one writing: "Omg, I always imagined they all stayed in individual little cottages on the castle estate somewhere - this is way less romantic than I thought."

Another seemed to confirm that they had seen a reality TV show being filmed in the airport hotel, writing: "I was staying here back in May 2022, no idea if it was for traitors s1, but they had guards on each corridor by all the lifts checking on people leaving their rooms. They said it was for the filming of a reality show, but refused to tell me which one. Lovely hotel to be fair!"

Well, it might not be a 19th century castle with all the frills - but who doesn't love a hotel stay?

The Traitors UK season 2 continues on Wednesday 10th January at 9pm.